Four home games, four straight losses. Such is life in Wrigleyville these days.

To be fair, I predicted a Latos shutout. If you look at it from that angle, the Cubs overachieved, right? OK, maybe not.

It was business as usual today as the extremely wild Carlos Zambrano gave up a Padres run in the top of the second. Despite six walks in six innings, Big Z was somehow able to keep the game within reach.

The Cubs battled back in the bottom of the sixth on RBI doubles by Byrd and Ramirez. The lead was short lived however, as the fading Sean Marshall surrendered four runs in 1/3 of an inning. The “offense” managed a meaningless run off closer Heath Bell in the ninth. Final score: 5-3.

“Most of those injuries involved Prior’s arm. In 2005, Prior missed one month after a line drive from the Colorado Rockies’ Brad Hawpe broke his right elbow. In 2006, Prior strained his shoulder during spring training and missed the season’s final six weeks with shoulder tendinitis.”

Once the liner hit him, I had a feeling he was doomed. He changed his motion to compensate, and it just snowballed from there. I wish him well in quest to get back, but it’ll be a long tough road.

Jesse

What an indictment on the season… We have a mediocre/underachieving mess of a team, and all we can do is kind of try to get to the end of the year. It would be nice to take at least one from ATL this weekend.

Buddy

I read that Mark Prior is topping out at 89 mph. He’s a long way from the majors.

http://swantron.com jswanson

Prior should develop a knuckleball…might be his only chance to get back to the show at this point.

Sinnycal

Eephus Pitch Prior.

Bill K.

Speaking as a lifetime White Sox fan…is Jim Hendry made of TEFLON?!? The media seems to give him a big juicy free pass for the 2010 debacle. His past crimes– Pandered to Zambrano for years, signed Milton Bradley, nothing to show for the top NL payroll, zero playoff wins in last 7 seasons, etc.
Good luck to Derrek Lee! A class act . Bravo to the Cub fans for the long ovation when he came to bat today.

chris in illinois

RE: Hendry. The guy’s not perfect and I won’t go into the long, long list of gold stars on his resume (not the least of which is overseeing the first decent farm system in Cub’s history), but let’s be honest the Hendry ERA has been a rousing success.

Let’s go back to 2004, when we had just witnessed the third (3rd!!) playoff appearance in 62 years and let’s ask any random Cub fan the following question:

” would you give me $100 and a pint of blood if I could guarantee you three straight winning seasons at the end of the decade, one of which we will have the best record in the league??? A word of warning, we might have a down year or two after those three years.”

I imagine the only question most Cub fans would have in response is “Does it have to be MY blood?”

The Cubs don’t have down years, they have down decades…does anyone here not think that they can’t be competetive in 2012 or even sooner?? What would the off-season signings of Dunn and Lilly mean??